Past Tense (part 2): Sisko and Bashir attempt to correct the damage they've done to the time line.

Last time on DS9: Sisko, Dax and Bashir had accidentally been beamed back in time to 2024, and promptly changed history, wiping out the Federation. I'm with Dr McCoy, you won't catch me using one of those transporter things. Eeesh.

Seriously if time travel was this easy, people would be doing it all the damn time. "Damn! I forgot to tape Doctor Who! Oh well, I'll just nip back in time three hours and watch it myself."

Sorry, where were we? Oh, Dick Miller tries to jump the leader of the terrorists, and Sisko tackles Dick so he doesn't get shot. Bashir gently reminds Sisko that in the original history, Bell died when the police stormed the building so, y'know, might not be such a great idea to pretend to be him.

Meanwhile, Dax whines about not being able to help her friends, and back in the future O'Brien and Kira prepare to beam back... to the FUTURE! to find their friends. They arrive in the 20s in hilarious anachronistic outfits.

There's discussion and Sisko persuades the leader of the terrorists (who they still haven't appeared to have given a name, so lets call him Crazy Bastard) to let some guy named Webb to speak for them. They contact the authorities, or at least Detective Preston - she wants to see that the hostages are OK, so Crazy Bastard grabs one of the more terrified hostages to manhandle on camera. Sisko tells him to calm down. Oh, Crazy Bastard is called "B.C.". Bastard Crazy?

Preston tries to bargain for one of the hostages with food. Sisko says they want the sanctuaries closed and the reinstatement of the Federal Employment Act. Bashir determines that one of the hostages is ill, and she tells him how once she let a woman who had a criminal record into the sanctuary. Later that night, Dick Miller gets up to go to the loo and B.C. gets ready to shoot him. Fortunately Sisko and Web talk him out of it, and then Sisko tells Dick off.

Meanwhile, Kira and O'Brien arrive in the 60s and encounter a couple of flower children, who witness the beamout. Don't worry guys, they were probably stoned out of their minds anyway.

Webb and Sisko meet with Preston again, who reveals that the Governor isn't going to meet any of their demands. Dax sneaks into the sanctuary through the sewers and is immediately captured and taken to join the hostages. *applause* Oh well, at least she can hack into the net for them.

B.C. reveals his name is Biddle Coleridge. No wonder he goes by B.C. Sisko tells Bashir to help Dax find whoever took her com badge, while he stays there and protects the hostages. Dax says she'll get Rick Astley to get them net access so they can broadcast their plight to the world. The pair track down the guy who took Dax's badge, who's a bit of a nut job. Dax manages to persuade him to return the com badge, and then goes back through the sewers and talks Rick into restoring net access. Meanwhile the governator instructs the police to storm in.

I wonder if Ahnuld is still governor in 2024. Probably not, I guess.

O'Brien finds there are 3 more possibilities and they only have enough chronoton particles for one more trip. Fortunately this time they hit it lucky. They contact Dax who fills them in.

The police storm the building and shoot B.C. and Webb. Sisko takes a bullet for Dick. After the police leave(!) to handle a disturbance on another street, they go outside to see the carnage from the riots. Dick decides to let Sisko and Bashir go, and take their IDs to plant on the dead men.

Once they're all back on the Defiant, Kira reports that the time line's been restored, and Bashir shows Sisko that the story of Gabriel Bell now has Sisko's face associated with it. Sisko muses he's going to have fun trying to explain this to Star Fleet, and the pair ruminate over how humans could have let things get so bad.